TIHE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
CITIZENS OF BUSUM, ON THE SHORE OF THE NORTH SEA, HOLD A BAREFOOT PARADE
AT EBB TIDE
There is no reason to doubt the Reichs
bahn's payment capacity. It is a going
concern, thoroughly efficient and up-to
date in its management and equipment.
Its board of directors includes a minority
of foreign experts representing the Dawes
creditors' interests. Its annual receipts
aggregate five billion marks and its profits
well over the Dawes requirements.
Unquestionably the Reichsbahn is quite
as good as Germany's excellent pre-war
railroads. In the last two years the sys
tem has been overhauled, modernized, and
thoroughly "rationalized."
When this
process began the payroll comprised more
than one million employees. Without loss
of efficiency, the number has been reduced
to seven hundred thousand, which still
leaves the Reichsbahn the biggest private
employer of labor in the world.
TIIE ONLY RAILROAD EQUIPPED WITH
RADIO TELEPHONE
Far-reaching improvements in both the
stationary equipment and rolling stock
have been put through. More than 621
miles of track are now electrified and
great progress is being made in the ex
tension of these stretches. This does not
include the electrification of the local and
suburban railways encircling Berlin.
German passenger trains are both faster
and more comfortable than they were in
1914.
New and more luxurious sleeping and
dining cars have been installed.
On the fast Hamburg-Berlin Express
the only railroad radio telephone in the
world functions daily, enabling travelers
to converse from the train with all parts
of the country. The speed of both pas
senger and freight trains has been greatly
increased; the running time from Berlin
to Cologne, for instance, has been cut
from ten to eight hours.
Thirty-six per cent more freight cars
are available than in 1913, and in Novem
ber, 1927, the average daily number of
such cars in operation was one hundred
eighty thousand, which constitutes a high
record.
Enormous sums of money are being
spent by the Reich and the States in the
construction of canals and roads. The
Rhine-Danube Canal is being rapidly
pushed to completion. With its opening
the city of Cologne will dominate all water
traffic between eastern and central Europe
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